One of the best perks of staying on-site at a Walt Disney World hotel is Early Entry. Every single day, all four WDW theme parks open 30 minutes before their listed daily hours so that on-site guests have extra time to enjoy rides. We recommend utilizing these, as waiting until late morning to arrive at a park can really clog up the dreaded wait times. But we recognize that getting up with the sun isn’t for everyone, myself included, so we’ve come up with three different plans for Early Entry dependent on when you arrive at the parks. In this post, we’ll break down those strategies for Animal Kingdom.

Just in case you’re new to the whole Early Entry thing, here’s a quick rundown of what it is. As an on-site hotel benefit, guests staying at any of the hotels on this list are able to enter the four Walt Disney World theme parks half an hour before the scheduled park time. For instance, Animal Kingdom generally opens at 8 so guests staying at those hotels can enter the park at 7:30. Guests staying elsewhere will be held at certain spots in the park, not being able to access rides until the opening time. In case you missed it, we’ve already given our strategies for Early Entry at Hollywood Studios and Epcot.

Animal Kingdom doesn’t have very many rides to begin with and the list is shrunk down even more during Early Entry. Only 4 attractions are open for the extra half hour – both rides in Pandora, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. That’s not a lot! Kali River Rapids and Kilimanjaro Safaris open at 8 with park’s walkthrough attractions shortly after that. Hopefully, Animal Kingdom will add to this small list in the next few years.

The slim pickings may have you thinking that Animal Kingdom Early Entry isn’t worth your time. That’s partially true. The park has so few attractions at this point that it’s not hard to get them all done in a day, regardless of wait times. On the other hand, I find Early Entry here to be sublime and that’s coming from someone who loathes mornings. The park is quiet, the animals are more active and crowds are minimal because of the earlier start. Taking full advantage of Early Entry at Animal Kingdom will have you ahead of the curve, freeing up the rest of the day to experience the park’s beautiful design and atmosphere.

Because I refuse to make anything simple, this post has 3 strategies for Early Entry. One is for those that show up to the park gates in advance (let’s say 30 minutes ahead) of Early Entry starting, the second is for guests who show up right on time and the third is for those that really planned to be there half hour early but knew all along that they’d probably end up being about 15 minutes late. We’ve all been that person and are not here to judge, only to offer a strategy for you!

The Early Risers

Hope you enjoyed the sunrise! As a reward for that early alarm clock, Animal Kingdom probably isn’t sweltering quite yet and you get to be one of the first guests on Flight of Passage. The Pandora – World of Avatar attraction is the easy choice for those that have shown up to the park early. You’ll be able to avoid the long lines that will form later in the day and have a nice walkthrough of the queue.

From there, it’s a simple game. While in the area, assuming Flight of Passage didn’t take long, knocking out Na’vi River Journey is a smart way to go. If the line has backed up more than 20 minutes though hop over to Kilimanjaro Safaris and be one of the first guests on that ride. While it doesn’t typically open until 8 AM, getting a morning ride in is fun as the animals are usually more active. Continue on with your day going from left to right in the park – Pandora->Africa->Asia->Dinosaur. If you’re one of those early risers, you might have all of the rides done here by 10 or 11 AM.

The Right On Timers

With so few attractions available, this step isn’t going to differ much from the previous one. An earlier start time (people don’t love to get to theme parks at 7:30 in the morning) makes the Flight of Passage queue not overly backed up. Even if you stroll into the park right when the gates open, your wait time shouldn’t be too much over half an hour. That’s solid for the most popular attraction in Animal Kingdom. Afterwards, head to Kilimanjaro Safaris and then follow our itinerary from there.

A sneaky alternative here, and one we’ll discuss in the next step even more, is going to Na’vi River Journey and then getting ahead of the crowd cycle by getting in line for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Going this route will have you saving Flight of Passage as the last ride you do. That’s not a bad move, as the queue is mostly inside. Still, we recommend going with Flight of Passage to start the day over this strategy.

The Snoozers/Coffee Drinkers

I may have spoiled this step a little bit but we’re basically trying to get ahead of the crowd if you show up 15 minutes into Early Entry. Riding Everest is a good option before heading to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Na’vi River Journey fits the bill too.

The main point of this step is that we’re saving Flight of Passage for later in the day. Getting in line after the Early Entry crowd means that you’ll behind the crowd all day. With Animal Kingdom having such a practical touring strategy (moving from left to right), joining the Flight of Passage queue behind everybody means that you’ll also likely join the Kilimanjaro Safaris queue behind everybody and then that trend continues. So, we advise to jump ahead of that group and then come back around for the big attraction in the late morning or before park closing. Or both!

Again, the minimal attraction roster means that the stakes are pretty low for Animal Kingdom’s Early Entry. Even if you don’t follow our advice or show up late then chances are good that you’ll still be able to complete everything you want to in the park. No one likes to spend extra time in lines though so we hope that these strategies help you avoid that!

What is your Early Entry process at Animal? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below! If you are planning a trip to Disney World, then check out our planning guide. This site has discount tickets to Walt Disney World. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. You can do all of that on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!